


The Shape of the Stars

by cadkitten



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Constellations, Falling In Love, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Outer Space, Planets, Poetry, Romance, Snow, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6574570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadkitten/pseuds/cadkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Partner fic to @timmyjaybird's LMC storyline.<br/>They shifted, the movement gentle as Damian leaned over his shoulder, the hand holding Vanni's leaving to gently grasp the telescope and guide it over the night sky. Vanni's gaze followed the vague direction of it, finding the brightest object in the sky. Damian moved, gently urging Vanni forward again. Once he'd pressed close to the lens, the brightness of another planetary body shining through the lens, Damian's lips pressed against his ear, his voice holding that tone again, the one that sent shivers down Vanni's spine; that ignited something deep inside of him. "The bright one is Saturn... can you see the rings?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shape of the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TimmyJaybird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimmyJaybird/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own timmyjaybird's OC, Vanni. I have only borrowed him - with permission - for the duration of this short story. Poem used at the end is by [John Derek Hamilton, entitled Universal Love Poem](http://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/universal_love_777176).  
> Notes: After [Royals](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6566980) I couldn't help it. Set on an unknown date in the future, during a very oddly specific time of the year.  
> Song[s]: "Bach Air, Suite No. 3" by Anne Akiko Meyers & Anton Nel

Cool air swept around Vanni's feet as Damian opened the heavy back door to the Manor. Even bundled up in the warmest sweater he'd brought with him, Vanni was honestly still cold. Snow swept in from outside, dusting over the wooden slats of the floorboards, leaving a scattering of dampness behind as it melted nearly the instant it touched the warmth of the floor. Titus nosed gently past Vanni's legs, his broad body slipping by. The moment he was at the door, he went ripping off across the snow-covered yard, leaving Damian staring after him, the barest hint of a smile dancing in his eyes for an instant before that, too, was gone, just like Titus.

Damian glanced back and Vanni shivered slightly under his gaze, feeling the gentle crawl of heat toward his cheeks under the weight of those jade green eyes. There was the barest moment of hesitation and then Damian stepped around behind him, lifting a heavy coat from the hook by the door and sliding it around his shoulders, holding it as Vanni stuck his arms into the sleeves. He pressed back into the warmth of Damian's body, against the solidity of his chest as the jacket was closed around him, pulled together and the first few buttons done up this way.

For an instant, Damian's hands stilled, resting with only the tips of his fingers on the thick material and then he was drawing away, kneeling down to open a large oblong bag laid out next to the door. From it, he extracted a long gold tube and something that looked rather like a stand.

Another gust of wind came through and Vanni reached to catch the door, the movement of it narrowly missing Damian as he stepped outside, feet sinking into the soft blanket of snow covering the ground. Vanni followed him out, closing the door firmly behind himself, and then took the first step out into the snow, watching the way his feet disappeared into the powdery white. He'd seen snow before, been out in it for hours on end when he was with the Court. But he'd never seen it like this - covering the ground so delicately, the wind picking it up and whirling it about them in little twists of white that felt like the very clouds in the sky had come down to greet them. It had always been cold and dampness that sent an ache bone-deep; had always meant longer nights and days spent curled up in the darkness underground shaking with the chill of it. But this... _this_ was something else entirely. It was pleasant and calmness and while it was cold, it wasn't the sort of cold he remembered from those nights. It was the sort that would be chased away with hot cocoa and plush blankets by the fire in the study. 

Finally, he took another step... and then another, bringing him along the same path Damian had taken, out beyond the first layer of trees and into the garden. He'd loved it out here when he'd first come - still did. Even with all the flowers long gone from the change of the season and even with the way only some of the bushes had any color to them, he found it to be just what it had been even then. His feet found the stones of the pathway and he followed it, knowing the turns by memory, knowing how it twisted alongside the frozen pond and over the little hill toward the edge of the property. 

He emerged from the purposeful gap in the bushes onto the crest of the little hill, finding Damian standing at the highest point, Titus at his side, one gloved hand resting on his head. Beside them, the thing - Damian had called it a telescope - was set up; all gleaming gold and stunning milky white that shone with a hundred colors, even in the midst of the moonlight. 

Damian turned as he approached, smiled in a way that Vanni knew had always been - and would likely continue to be - solely for him. It was trust and it was a _happiness_ that very little else brought out in the depths of those beautiful eyes. And it made Vanni feel special in a way he still hadn't fully put into words. 

Stepping up to him, Vanni reached to wipe some of the water from his face, from the snow that had melted there already. Damian's hand hovered a fraction of an inch from his shoulder and the breathy words of, "May I?" were cast into the air, barely loud enough to be heard. Within him, Vanni could feel the words rising up, the way they always did for Damian, even as he'd spoken some of the darkest secrets he held in the past year or so. And with the same ease, he gave his allowance, his hands moving to sign the same words out. "Anything today."

Damian's hand pressed to his shoulder, guiding him to stand at the end of the telescope where it came down into another smaller cylinder. He was guided carefully into place, Damian's hand on his waist now, the other gently lacing with Vanni's fingers, the clumsy grip of their gloved hands ignored in favor of the contact it allowed. Vanni relaxed into the cozy cocoon Damian's body afforded him in the midst of the coldness of the world around them, letting Damian guide him forward until he was looking into the lens.

The bright white of the moon shone through and he took in a shuddering breath, the very image of it giving his heart a good flutter. Damian's arm curled around him a bit more snugly, his chin resting gently on his shoulder. "I told you I would show you the moon and the stars and every planet in the sky one day." His voice was heavier than Vanni was used to and it held a certain little aspect of something he couldn't quite pinpoint but he knew he enjoyed hearing within it. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Vanni squeezed Damian's hand tightly in his own, excitement putting strength to his grip that hadn't been there in a long time. A little swell of happiness slid up his spine as he took in every hill and valley of the moon, every darkened spot and every spot that shone brighter than he thought the sun itself could. There was a beauty here that he hadn't expected, hadn't even begun to fathom when he looked up at this pale orb in the sky each night. He'd thought it gorgeous before, thought it to be a hundred things, but never _this_.

When he finally drew away, it was only to reach back with his free hand and slide his hand up under Damian's hood, through his hair to catch hold of it as he eased himself back against him fully enough that he wasn't really holding himself up any longer, Damian doing the work for both of them, though it was clear he didn't mind in the way he looked down into Vanni's eyes. There was a smile on his lips and a light in his eyes that left Vanni feeling happier than he could remember ever being before. "There's a lot more up there."

Damian's offer brought a grin to his lips and Vanni allowed the ideas in his mind to drift away, ebbing him on the tide of whatever this entire moment in time was, letting him ride along with it in relative ease. "Show me," this time there was no need to sign the words, no need to engage his hands in anything other than what they were already doing.

They shifted, the movement gentle as Damian leaned over his shoulder, the hand holding Vanni's leaving to gently grasp the telescope and guide it over the night sky. Vanni's gaze followed the vague direction of it, finding the brightest object in the sky. Damian moved again, gently urging Vanni forward again. Once he'd pressed close to the lens, the brightness of another planetary body shining through the lens, Damian's lips pressed against his ear, his voice holding that tone again, the one that sent shivers down Vanni's spine; that ignited something deep inside of him. "The bright one is Saturn... can you see the rings?"

"I do." The words were breathless, catching, but not in the way that made Vanni want to trip over them, only in the manner he had grown to associate with excitement and with a knowledge that _Damian_ himself caused them more often than not. 

"Around that is Leo. Do you remember me telling you about him?"

The hint of a smile crept over Vanni's face. He remembered that better than Damian probably thought he did, remembered every single word of the story and how Damian had spoken about the ancient Greeks and the hero Heracles who had slain the lion. But the best pieces, the ones Vanni _knew_ Damian would never suspect had been the parts he'd memorized with a desperate need to hold onto them, had been the poetry, words by a man named Ovid, Damian had later told him. But the foreign words as they rolled off of Damian's tongue had sounded like magic and he knew he'd not forget those, no matter the state of his mind or the way his life progressed in the years to come. Because those words _haunted_ him as much as they warmed him, rose his heartrate in the same ways the heat of a battle being waged once had, and the very same way Damian's hands upon his violin always accomplished. But there were some things he'd learned he could keep for himself, some secrets he would never share. And so, he only smiled, waiting to see if he could draw the words from Damian once again.

As the story came, the breath of words upon the gentle breeze that swept around their feet, Vanni only watched the sky, only felt the heat of the one he held in close regard pressed so tightly behind him. And when those words, so aching and passionate sprang from Damian's lips once more, Vanni found his hands moving with them, signing what he felt like they would have translated into, what he felt about the story and he sky laid out in front of him in such detail. He followed the guidance from star to star as Damian mapped them out for him - from Regulus to Denebola to Zosma, all the way across Algieba to the greatness of Ras Elased. And he _knew_ that he'd never have wanted another to have taught him every single piece of the sky like this. 

When the story was done and the guidance of the structure of the constellation complete, he drew away from the lens, turning to press himself against Damian, welcomed into his embrace without hesitation, without the resistance there once had been whenever someone _might_ have seen. They were growing, shaping themselves and one another into something more complete than either of them had once been and something about that made Vanni _proud_. 

Damian drew him in close and the way he looked at him... Vanni could have sworn it was as if Damian could see the universe in his eyes, as if the very things he'd spent his time teaching Vanni were displayed in the depths of his own inky blackness. When Damian's lips pressed against his own, it was _everything_ they'd been building toward the entire night. Warmth spread through his body and his heart gave a startled little flop in his chest, his breath forgetting to be drawn for an instant too long. His head felt light and his hands trembled as he slid them up over Damian's chest, gripping tight at his coat as the heat of Damian's tongue pressed lightly over his own. 

All too soon, Damian was drawing away, easing himself back just enough that Vanni found the light of such pleasure in his face, found the glow of happiness in his cheeks. And when that smile came, it was _blinding_ in intensity; as though the very moon had found home inside of Damian's heart tonight. Reaching up, Vanni let his gloved hand rest along Damian's cheek, trailed it down over his jawline as he found the words, the ones he thought - perhaps - Damian would have used if he had been the one speaking them. "The stars are like diamonds, shining brightly in your eyes." His voice began so softly he was almost afraid Damian hadn't heard him, except that he could _see_ he had, see the way he was looking at him like he was the brightest thing out here tonight; and he knew the feeling intimately. "Illuminating my darkness as you cover me with your skies." There was the dawn of recognition, the understanding of what Vanni was quoting as they stood out here together amidst the peace of the universe. "The moon in its splendor is nothing when compared to you."

Damian's glove dropped to the ground at their feet and the warmth of his fingertips ghosted over Vanni's lips, the touch barely there, but meant to put the words on hold for the barest of instants. He could see the calculation in Damian's eyes, see the smallest hint of fear dancing behind them. And then, his words, continuing the poem, his voice thick with emotion, "Your reflection of my love comes beaming right on through. You keep circling me, just as the planets do the sun..."

"Visions of you spinning in orbit, just makes me come undone." Damian's fingers traveled to Vanni's cheek, his touch gentle, almost reverent as Vanni spoke the next lines with him. "You flash before my eyes, appearing just like Haley's comet." Damian quieted as Vanni breathed out, "Meteor showers of love blazing down..." and Damian finished, "... as to me, they plummet."

And this time, when their lips met, it was _different_ , in a way it had never been before. It was filled with something that felt like _home_ and an ache that Vanni would have called redemption if he'd had to lay a single word to an emotion that boasted a million. He'd never felt more alive or more like he _belonged_ in his entire life than he did, right there, standing atop the smallest of hilltops, safely within Damian's arms. And for that, he would be forever grateful.


End file.
